Mainline Protestants have been casting away traditional Christian teachings with great abandon. Pastors can now be female, gay, rejecters of Christ’s deity, atonement, and resurrection, etc., etc. One wonders if, in liberal Protestantism, there is any minimum religious belief that is necessary in a pastor. Or in a Christian or a member of the church. For example, does a pastor (or Christian, or church member), have to believe in God?
The United Church of Canada is having to make a decision about this, as it reviews the case of one of its ministers, Greta Vosper, who is an atheist and who teaches atheism from her pulpit.
PREDICTION: Pastors in the United Church will not be required to believe in God. Nor will church members. Christians may be atheists. And atheists will be considered Christians. To their great annoyance.
From Ashifa Kassam, Atheist pastor sparks debate by ‘irritating the church into the 21st century’ | World news | The Guardian
There is not one mention of God during the 70-minute service at Toronto’s West Hill United church. Bibles are nowhere to be seen. The large steel cross – one of the few remaining religious symbols in this church – is hidden behind a cascade of rainbow streamers.
But that is perhaps to be expected in a church led by an avowed atheist.
“I do not believe in a theistic, supernatural being called God,” says Gretta Vosper, the United Church of Canada minister who has led West Hill since 1997. “I don’t believe in what I think 99.99% of the world thinks you mean when you use that word.” Tor her, God is instead a metaphor for goodness and a life lived with compassion and justice.
Vosper’s outspoken commitment to a seemingly clashing set of beliefs has prompted turmoil in the open-minded United Church of Canada. A progressive Christian denomination that began ordaining women inCanada 80 years ago and for decades has allowed openly gay men and women to lead ministries, the church has been left questioning its boundaries.
In the coming weeks, an unprecedented review will be carried out to determine whether Vosper can stay on as a minister. At its most basic level, the review will ask a simple question that’s likely to yield a complicated answer: can the United church of Canada have an atheist minister?
[Keep reading. . .]
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